One of Their Own
by DarkandtwistyGirl
Summary: Somewhat AU after S8 opener. How will the doctors of Seattle Grace cope when it's one of their own on the operating table? Whilst Derek is forced to learn that sometimes your life can change in an instant. MerDer *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters thereof. This is just for fun.**_

_**Hi everyone, so hear's another AU fic based on 8x09. Please let me know what you think.**_

**_Enjoy!_**

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

"Alright, I think we are done. Wrap her up, and move her to SICU, I'll be up in a few minutes." Dr Amelia Shepherd was relieved as she stepped back from the operating table. It had not been an easy case for the troubled neurosurgeon, in fact it had been one of the hardest cases of her career, and she had only left rehab eight hours earlier.

"You okay, Ames?" Dr Addison Forbes Montgomery looked up from the set of foetal monitors that had been her single focus through the operation.

"I'm fine," Amelia said, brushing her off as she left the OR to speak to her patient's husband, her big brother Derek.

To Amelia it felt as though everyone was staring at her, talking about her even as she walked past; maybe it was irrational, but for the thirty-nine year old recovering drug addict it was the reality.

All that kept her grounded was the sight of her brother sitting in his office, trying to console the dark skinned toddler that he was holding, all the time looking as though his entire world had fallen apart.

"Derek," Amelia said softly as she approached.

Wearily Derek stood to meet his sister. There was so much that he wanted to say, but in that moment all that he could think of was, "How'd it go? How's Meredith?"

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><p><strong>Flashback - The night of the accident<strong>

News of the accident had spread through the hospital like wildfire, and as the ambulances started to pull up holding the victims, everyone was gathered on the helipad awaiting their arrival. More so they were waiting for news on their friends.

Alex, along with the occupants of the van that had collided with the ambulance were being transported by ground, but Meredith and the infant however had been deemed in need of much more urgent assistance.

The wind created by the helicopter's blades, and the roar that accompanied it filled the air as the flight medics unloaded their patients.

The baby was first. Arizona moved forward quickly along with a team from the neonatal unit to take the baby straight to the OR.

Then the medics pulled out a second stretcher, holding Meredith; she was secured to a backboard, a cervical collar was wrapped around her neck, and she was intubated and connected to a portable ventilator. She was barely hanging on.

Mark Sloan kept a firm hand on Derek's shoulder, holding his best friend back. It was clear to everyone that Derek was devastated by the sight of the full extent of his wife's condition.

"Thirty-eight year old female, suffered head, neck, and abdominal trauma in an MVC. Was conscious initially, but went downhill on the flight. Suspected intracranial bleed, and possible cervical fracture."

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><p>Even as they moved downstairs to the pit an intense discussion was taking place on how they were going to treat Meredith. Owen Hunt had taken charge of the team. "Derek, you know I can't let you scrub in," Owen tried to reason with his colleague, "Nelson's on his way in. He can manage the neuro trauma."<p>

"No, no way. Nelson is an incompetent idiot, I'm not letting him near her."

"...Meredith needs surgery, Derek," Owen could see that he was getting nowhere. Trying a different approach, he asked, "Is there another surgeon that we could call in? Someone you trust?"

Derek thought for a moment, before he realised that there was only one neurosurgeon other than himself that he trusted to operate on Meredith, his little sister Amelia. "I need to make a call."

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><p>As they reach the emergency department, Derek moved away from the bustling crowds to make the phone call. He was a little surprised when he tried Amelia's cell phone, only to realise that it had been turned off.<p>

So instead Derek called her office, but the phone rang out.

Now, not only was he worried about his wife, but also his sister. Resisting the urge to just break down, Derek tried one more number, his ex-wife who worked at the same LA practice as Amelia.

Addison answered her phone on the second ring; she seemed calm and composed, that is until Derek revealed that he was the caller. "...Derek, what's going on?"

Derek sighed deeply. "I'm trying to reach Amy, she's not answering her cell or office phones."

"Derek, what is going on? Is it something I can help you with?"

"Meredith was in an accident, we're about to take her for a scan, but her presentation is pretty classic of a tear in her MCA. I need Amelia to fly up to do the surgery."

Addison was quiet for what felt like hours, but in reality was probably less than a minute. Then she told Derek, "Amelia's in rehab-"

"Wait? What? What happened?"

"She was drinking, then the drinking turned to oxy. Her fiancé ODed."

"Fiancé? Since when did she get engaged?"

"It's a long story, Derek." Addison didn't feel that it was her place to tell Derek anymore of what had transpired while Amelia had been using. "I haven't seen her, but she's meant to be discharged next week." Addison could tell that there was only one piece of information she could give him that would be enough. "She's at Pacific Serenity Treatment Center. The number there is 555-0194."

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><p>Derek felt numb, almost surreal as he listened to the phone ring. His baby sister was back in rehab, and he needed her help.<p>

"Pacific Serenity Treatment Center, how may I assist you?"

As Derek spoke it barely even felt as though the words he spoke were his own, "I need to speak to a patient, Amelia Shepherd. I'm her brother, Derek ...It's urgent."

"Alright, I'll just put you on hold for one moment while I see if she's available. But it is group time so you may have to try again later."

"No. I need to speak to my sister right now, it's a matter of life and death. Please."

"Okay, just give me a minute," The receptionist's tone softened noticeably before she put the phone on hold, assumingly to go in search of Amelia.

It seemed like an eternity to Derek, before finally the sound of his youngest sister's voice came over the line, "Derek, what's wrong?"

"Meredith was in an accident. I need you to come to Seattle; she's got an intracranial bleed, and you're the only person that I trust to do the surgery, Amy."

"...Derek. I can't."

"Please Amy. I need you." Derek paused, his voice cracking. "There's already a helicopter on its way to pick you up. You know I wouldn't ask this of you if there was any other option. Ames-"

"Okay," Amelia agreed reluctantly, though it was still going to take her some time to wrap her head around it. "Okay, okay. You'll need to get privileges there for me-"

"I'll sort it out. Just be ready to go when the helicopter lands," Derek paused. "Thank you, Amy."

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><p>The trauma room was abuzz with activity as Derek came in... just in time to see Jackson performing an ultrasound on Meredith. That was when Derek heard the stunned words that changed everything, "She's pregnant!"<p>

Jackson's exclamation seemed to ring through the room, all the other noise in the room faded away.

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><p>No one had seen Derek enter, and their first and only indication of his presence came as he shoved Jackson out of the way, intending to confirm the seemingly impossible news for himself.<p>

Derek gently pressed the ultrasound wand on Meredith's bruised abdomen. There it was, a tiny foetus.

"...Looks like about eight or nine weeks," Miranda Bailey said in quiet awe; she knew too well of the struggle that Meredith had recently faced trying to fall pregnant.

"Derek, can you find a heartbeat?" Owen asked, not daring to hope. Everything he knew told him to expect that the force of the accident would most likely have caused a miscarriage.

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><p><em><strong>TBC...<strong>_

_**Thanks for reading! Please take a moment to drop me a review.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters thereof. This is just for fun.**_

_**Hi everyone, thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews. Here's the next chapter, and I am fully aware that you may hate me by the time you finish reading. Please let me know what you think.**_

**_Enjoy!_**

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

**Present Day**

"How's Meredith?"

Amelia pulled a chair around to the other side of the desk so that she could sit beside her brother, only as she sat down did she allow herself to show the relief that she felt. "Meredith's stable, they're moving her to the ICU. The baby's fine too, for now."

"How'd it go? Did you have to do a craniectomy? Was there any sign of neurological damage?"

"I evacuated the haemorrhage, and repaired the MCA. There was quite a bit more diffuse oedema than we saw on the scan, so I did have to perform a bilateral craniectomy. But still, that kind of force she's doing well to be alive, Derek. You know that."

"Yeah, I know. She could still die. Did Callie do the cervical stabilisation?"

"Oh, Dr Torres? Yeah, she did a great job. There was no sign of any cord damage." Amelia paused, she couldn't help but be drawn to look at the toddler that Derek continued to bounce on his knee gently. "Who's kid is that, Derek? And what's she doing in here?"

"Amy, this is Zola, my daughter."

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><p><strong>Flashback<strong>

Already eight hours had passed since Meredith had been taken into surgery, and Derek was barely holding himself together as he waited in his office for news of his wife's condition.

"Dr Shepherd."

Derek looked up to see social worker, Janet standing at the doorway to his office, baby Zola was balanced comfortably on her hip. Realising that he must look pretty dreadful, Derek quickly wiped his face, hoping to at least clear the tears. "Janet. ...Zola."

"I tried to find you at home... Is everything alright?"

"Meredith was in an accident..." Derek said dejectedly. "She was transporting a sick newborn from the hospital in Bentley. The ambulance broke down out on the mountains, they were waiting for a replacement when they were hit by another car. She's in surgery, and," Derek paused, choked up by tears, "...we don't know if she's going to pull through."

There was a lengthy silence, Janet would later reflect that she had most likely been in shock.

Then Zola started to babble, breaking the silence. She reached out to her daddy.

Seeing Zola trying to reach out to him, it tugged at something deep within Derek, it pulled him out of his hole. "Why are you here? Is Zola okay?"

"Zola's fine, Dr Shepherd," Janet quickly reassured him. "...I came to tell you that the judge made the final decision; he awarded you and Dr Grey as Zola's adoptive parents. Zola is yours, Derek, forever."

"That's... That is wonderful, really," Derek was overjoyed, or at least he would have been under any other circumstances. Now he could barely manage a smile.

Janet handed Zola to Derek, and put the diaper bag down beside the desk as she prepared to leave. "I really hope that Meredith is alright."

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><p><strong>Present Day<strong>

"Damn it, no! I'm not going anywhere until you damn well tell me if Meredith's alright!" Callie Torres was trying to take Alex into the OR to repair the multiple fractures he had sustained to his shoulder and upper arm, but Alex was far from being co-operative. There was no way that Alex could bring himself to allow his injuries to be treated before he knew that Meredith was okay.

Callie had only just finished up Meredith's surgery; she was exhausted in every sense of the word. She knew full well the nature of Meredith's injuries, and she knew from experience that people with the injuries that Meredith had rarely recovered any meaningful function, but that was the last thing that Alex needed to hear, he was already beating himself up enough. "Knock it off Karev, like I said Meredith is out of surgery, she's critical but stable. Now, can we just get you fixed up? I've got other surgeries booked today."

"Come on, Torres. That's nothing, and you know it. Tell me that Meredith is okay, then you can do whatever you want," Alex replied, not giving an inch.

Callie sighed, she found herself unable to look at the resident as she finally gave him the information that he sought. "...There was a tear in Meredith's middle cerebral artery, it caused a major bleed, when Amelia started the craniotomy she found that there were diffuse contusions that didn't show up on the scan. She repaired the artery, but there was too much swelling to replace the skull flap. Once Amelia was finished, I operated on the C4, C5 fractures. There was no apparent sign of cord injury; I placed a halo for stabilisation, before closing. And Dr Bailey is keeping an eye on a spleenic injury, but she doesn't think it will need surgery. It really comes down to the head trauma-"

"She's not going to wake up, is she?" Alex asked, though in his heart he already knew the answer.

Callie looked over to Alex, tears forming in her eyes. "Probably not."

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><p>Amelia looked at young Zola in awe, she was a beautiful child. She and Ryan would have had beautiful children, Amelia thought with sadness as she began to slip back into the memories, remembering the night that she had awoken to find Ryan dead.<p>

_'Four kids; two boys, and two girls. You can't die, because we're going to get clean and start a family. Ryan, Ryan-'_

"Ryan," Amelia didn't even realise as she cried out the name of her late fiancé.

"Amy?" Derek instinctively moved to comfort his sister. "You okay?"

Amelia seemed to take a minute to bring herself out of the daze that had overcome her. "...Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Who's Ryan?"

"He was the man that I loved," Amelia answered softly, her gaze still fixed on Zola.

Derek gently pushed Amelia's hair from her face, tucking in behind her ear. "Addison told me what happened, Ames. I'm sorry about your fiancé."

Amelia looked away, trying to hide her sadness. She quickly changed Derek's focus. "How about we go check on Meredith? She should be settled in the SICU by now."

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><p>Though Derek had seen many patients in a similar condition, and even seen Meredith ill after her near drowning, the sight of her as he entered the critical care room was almost more than he could bear.<p>

Zola started to cry, as though she sensed her adoptive father's distress. But Derek could barely hear her cries.

Addison was sitting at the bedside; she had volunteered to stay with Meredith, though she rationalised her choice as being a need to monitor Meredith's baby. She looked up as she heard the sound of Zola's cries. "Derek," Addison murmured softly, almost apologetically.

Amelia silently took Zola from her brother's arms, as Derek moved to Meredith's side.

Derek looked down to Meredith, and then to his ex-wife. "Is the baby alright?" He asked. Just days ago it had seemed to be an impossible dream that he and Meredith would ever be parents, now they had Zola and another baby on the way, and Derek knew that he may well be left to raise them alone, that was if the baby even survived to term.

"I just did another ultrasound; the foetus seems to be alright for now. But Derek, it is a long way from viability. The chance of this baby making it to twenty-six weeks is slim." It went unsaid that if this was any other patient it would have immediately been decided that it was not a viable option to even try to save the immature foetus.

It would take a highly talented ob/gyn to keep the baby alive within Meredith's injured body; that was precisely why Derek had brought in Addison to monitor the pregnancy.

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><p><strong>Flashback<strong>

Derek had barely finished speaking to his sister, when he heard the news of Meredith's pregnancy. He hadn't hesitated to call his ex-wife to ask for her help.

"Addison, I need you to come to Seattle. I've already called the transport helicopter; they're going to land at St Ambrose Hospital in about twenty-five minutes to get you."

"What is going on Derek? Why do you need..." Addison paused, realising that there was only one reason that Derek would need her help. "Meredith's pregnant?"

"It looked like about nine weeks on the ultrasound."

"Is there a heartbeat?"

Derek couldn't help but smile, just a little as he told Addison, "Yeah, a really strong one."

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><p><strong>Present Day<strong>

Hours turned to days, and days turned into weeks, and slowly Meredith's friends and family began to lose hope that Meredith would ever regain consciousness. Every piece of medical information told them that there was no chance that Meredith would come through this trauma.

Still, Derek did not give up. He took a leave of absence from the hospital, and asked Mark to take care of Zola, as he took to spending his days and most nights sitting at Meredith's bedside. He watched as her abdomen slowly grew.

If only Meredith knew... she would have been thrilled about her pregnancy.

Amelia and Addison still came up to Seattle at least once a week to check on Meredith and the baby. Not that Derek would listen to them, but they made no effort to hide that they believed that the only reason to maintain Meredith's life support was in the hope that the baby could make it to full term; a goal that so far was going well.

It had been five months, two weeks, and three days since the ambulance accident, and as had become the norm Derek was sitting in the corner of Meredith's hospital room, silently watching over his comatose wife.

But at last there was a glimmer of hope, a drug called zolpidem was showing promise in awakening coma patients; Derek had decided that it was worth a try.

"Knock, knock."

Derek looked up to see Mark standing in the doorway; young Zola was by his side, holding his hand with her chubby fingers.

"I was about to drop this little lady into daycare, but I thought she might like to come see Mommy and Daddy first," Mark said, "How're you doing today, man?"

"Amy started her on _zolpidem a couple of hours ago, I swear it's working. _She's been curling her fingers up around my hand more when I speak to her now," Derek said, he still tried to hold onto some kind of hope, even though all his training told him that what he saw was a mere spinal cord reflex.

"..That's good, Derek, really," Mark replied, though his voice betrayed his true feelings. "Do you want to hold Zola for awhile?"

"...Yeah, yeah. Hand her here," Derek agreed, albeit slowly. He moved closer to Meredith's bed. "Zola needs to see her Mom too," Derek said by reason.

Mark gently scooped Zola up in his arms, and took her to Derek. "Here you go."

"Hi baby girl," Derek said softly, wearily as he moved to set Zola in her comatose mother's arms, cautious of Meredith's heavily pregnant belly. "Mere, Zola's here to see you," Derek said, hoping that Meredith could hear him.

Then, as if by a miracle Meredith's eyelids fluttered open, her gaze slowly moved around the room, unfocused.

"Mere? Meredith, can you hear me?"

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><p><em><strong>The End<strong>_

_**So, hate me now? Should I write a sequel?**_

_**Thanks for reading! Please take a moment to drop me a review.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone,**

**Just a quick note to let you know that I've started posting the sequel to this fic. It's titled Rebuilding, please take a minute to check it out!**

**xx DarkandtwistyGirl**


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